Using emotion to Persuade 17.3 393
As a public speaker, you can draw on the myths that you and your audience
members share to provide emotional and motivational support for your mes-
sage. Referring to a shared myth is a way to identify with your listeners and help
them see how your ideas support their ideas; it can help you develop a common
bond with audience members. Politicians use myth when they show pictures
of themselves surrounded by their families. The underlying myth is “I cherish
what you cherish: to live in a country that supports and nurtures the family val-
ues we hold dear.”
In trying to convince his listeners to vote, Jason argued, “We can’t let down
those who fought for our freedom. We must vote to honor those who died for
the privilege of voting that we enjoy today.” He was drawing on the power-
ful myth that people have died for our freedoms. To gain parent support for a
new high school, Cynthia said, “Our grandparents and great-grandparents lived
through the Great Depression and the world wars of the past century so that
we can send our children to the best public schools in the world. Vote for the
new high school.” She was appealing to the myth that the previous generation
sacrificed, which gave us a responsibility to sacrifice for our children. Again, we
emphasize that myth does not mean “false” or “made up.” People really did die
for our freedom, and our grandparents and great-grandparents did live through
the Depression and two tragic world wars; a myth is powerful because the audi-
ence knows that those events occurred.
Appealing directly or indirectly to the commonly held myths of an
audience is a powerful way to evoke emotional support for your message.
But as with any form of support, especially emotional support, you have
an ethical responsibility to use this strategy wisely and not to exploit your
listeners.
Using Emotional Appeals: Ethical Issues
Regardless of which emotions you use to motivate your audience, you have
an obligation to be ethical and forthright. Making false claims, misusing
evidence to arouse emotions, or relying only on emotions without any evi-
dence to support a conclusion violates ethical standards of effective public
speaking.
A demagogue is a speaker who attempts to gain power or control over
others by using impassioned emotional pleas and appealing to listeners’
prejudices. The word demagogue comes from the Greek word demagogos,
meaning “popular leader.” Speakers who become popular by substituting
emotion and fallacies for well-supported reasoning are guilty of demagoguery.
As we discussed in Chapter 4, during the early 1950s, anti-communist
Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy’s unethical use of fear appeals backed by
little evidence undermined his credibility and earned him a reputation as a
demagogue. You have an ethical responsibility not to misuse emotional appeals
when persuading others.